Red envelope battle warms up for Spring Festival

China's Internet companies are scrambling to send out cash-filled virtual red envelopes for Spring Festival.

中国各大互联网公司都摩拳擦掌，准备为春节期间在线发送现金红包大战一场。

Envelopes worth several hundred million yuan will be handed out by Ant Financial Services Group, the Internet finance arm of Alibaba Group Holding, through its Alipay Wallet apps on Feb 7, the eve of the festival. Archrivals Baidu and Tencent Holdings Ltd are stepping up their efforts in the campaign, with the aim of expanding their presence in the mobile payments market.

2月7日除夕夜，阿里巴巴控股集团旗下蚂蚁金融服务将通过支付宝钱包应用程序发放金额高达亿元的红包。主要竞争对手百度和腾讯控股有限公司也正加紧努力，以期扩展公司在移动支付市场的份额。

Alipay users can pick red envelopes on their smartphones as they watch the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

支付宝用户可以在观看央视猴年春晚的同时，通过智能手机参与抢红包活动。

"Every round of red envelopes will contain 100 million yuan in cash," the company said, without disclosing how many rounds will be involved. Consumers who collect five virtual lucky cards, which can be found in the virtual red envelopes, can also share the grand prize of 200 million yuan.

"每一轮红包含1亿元现金"，阿里公司表示，至于当晚将有多少轮红包发送，目前公司尚未透露。领取红包，集齐5张福卡的用户更能分享2亿元的红包大奖。

Baidu is giving away red envelopes worth 6 billion yuan during Spring Festival, while Tencent is sinking hundreds of millions of yuan into its campaign.

春节期间的年度红包大战，百度将发放价值60亿元的红包，腾讯也将力掷亿元。

The virtual red envelopes became popular in 2014 after Tencent promoted them on WeChat, China's most popular instant messaging platform that boasts 650 million users a month.

2014年，中国最流行的实时通讯平台，一个月便拥有6.5亿用户量的腾讯微信开始推广发红包功能，发红包便火速流行起来。

Analysts said the envelopes war is aimed at gaining control of the country's booming mobile payments market, with the three Internet companies trying to lure new users.

分析人士称，红包大战旨在争取国内蓬勃发展的移动支付市场，三大互联网公司通过发送红包活动来吸引新用户。

Li Chao, an analyst at Internet consultancy iResearch Consulting Group in Beijing, said, "Giving out red envelopes is a nationwide tradition that can involve consumers in major cities and small towns, so it makes sense for Internet companies to sink significant investments into this."

李超，互联网咨询公司北京艾瑞咨询集团的一名分析师表示，"发红包是一个全国性的传统，惠及各大城市和小城镇的用户，因此，互联网公司斥巨资发放红包来吸引用户群这种做法是可以理解的。"

Tencent claims to have acquired the majority of its 200 million mobile payment users after pouring 500 million yuan into its Spring Festival red envelopes campaign last year. Ma Tao, an analyst at Analysys International, said the campaign is also Alibaba's latest attempt to add more social networking appeal to its Alipay app.

腾讯表示，在去年春节的红包大战中腾讯发放了5亿元的红包，最终收获2亿主要移动支付用户。马涛，易观国际的分析师表示，这场活动也是阿里增加支付宝社交互动的最新举措。